Trinamool bags trust vote victory at Gangarampur

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress on Monday won the trust vote of the councillors at Gangarampur municipality 11-0, while the current municipal chairman Prasanta Mitra lost the vote of confidence.

Mitra remained absent from the voting process. It has been learnt that a councillor who joined BJP has also voted in favour of Trinamool Congress.

The councillors reached the municipality at around 10 am on Monday. The district police ensured elaborate security arrangement at Gangarampur municipality to conduct the trust vote smoothly.

The voting started at around 11.30 am. The result was published soon after the election was over. Trinamool Congress managed to retain the municipality.

Confusion was created after some councillors joined the saffron party and BJP subsequently claimed that they had a majority in the municipality. Trinamool Congress district leaders later took out a rally to celebrate the victory.

Mitra remained absent during the trust vote as he had been at the Calcutta High Court. He had wanted to defer the election process, but the Calcutta High Court rejected his plea and said that the vote would be held on Monday as it was fixed earlier. As a result, the councillors took part in the election according to schedule.

The high court had directed that the vote of confidence in municipality chairman Prasanta Mitra would be held on August 5, as per an earlier notice given by some councillors on July 16.

It may be mentioned that the chairman has been recently sacked by Trinamool Congress district president Arpita Ghosh, for alleged anti-party activities. Mitra is the brother of former TMC district president Biplab Mitra, who was sacked by party supremo Mamata Banerjee, following Ghosh's defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.